Preview
This chapter defends the conception of religious liberty that is rooted in an appreciation of the nature of religion as a basic human good. Offering a natural law theory of religious freedom as an alternative to the more familiar liberal conceptions, the chapter notes, however, an important similarity between this book’s natural law argument for religious freedom and the Lockean liberal approach to the subject. It is argued here that it is a mistake to conclude, as many contemporary liberals do, that political authority must, in effect, profess agnosticism and concern itself not at all with people’s religious or spiritual well-being. An even worse mistake to make is to suppose that it is illegitimate for people to act on religious motivations in the creation of law and the formulation of public policy with respect to important issues of justice and human rights.
Keywords: religious liberty; human good; liberal; John Locke; political authority
Chapter. 6458 words.
Subjects: Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
Go to Oxford Scholarship Online » abstract
Full text: subscription required
How to subscribe Recommend to my Librarian
Buy this work at Oxford University Press »
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content. Please, subscribe or login to access all content.